Woven wire conveyer belt



Oct. 4, 1932.

H. A. WADMAN 1,880,537

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Patented Oct. 4, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HAROLD A. WADMAN, OF WEST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HARTFORD- EMPIRE COMPANY, OFVHARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION 0F DELAWARE WOVEN WIRE CONVEYER BELT Application led May 3, 1932. Serialy No. 608,964.

This invention relates to woven wire conveyers, or conveyer belts, of the type which are particularly useful in conveying glasswarethrough annealing lehrs. This use of conveyers of this general type is illustrated and described in the patents to Mulholland 1,560,481, granted Nov. 3, 1925, and Ingle 1,583,046, granted May 4, 1926. l

In the use of woven wire conveyers of the type disclosed in the Mulholland and Ingle patents it has been found that several diliculties arise, first, due to the use of substantially helical wound wire for making up the conveyers, there is a tendency incident to a change of direction of the conveyer for lateral creeping, probably due to the cork-screwing action between contiguous transverse helical wires. In the past this creeping action has been compensated for by the use of panels or sections of right hand wound wires arranged alternately with panels or sections of left hand wound wires, the sections being suitably connected at the joints. The purpose of this construction was to produce a creeping action in one direction exactly compensating for the creeping actionv in the other direction, the panels being of such length that excessive creeping action was avoided, although this action was still material.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a belt wherein this lateral creeping action is reduced substantially to zero by the use of single wire sections so that there is a negligible creeping action in either direction, thus providing a belt which will travel in substantially a given unchanging path.

A further diiculty which has been experienced in the past with the use of conveyer belts as used in the Mulholland and Ingle patents, is that at the lateral sides of the belts at the joints between right and left hand .wound wire sections there is a tendency for the belt to warp or be bowed out of the desired plane of the course of travel thereof. In practice it has been found that a more or less triangular portion of the belt, substantially in the form'oi:` an isosceles triangle, the base of which is on the lateral side of the belt and the altitude is on the line of connection between right and left hand wound sections,

REISSUED will bend up at one side of the belt and down at the other between the right and left hand wound sections and in the next adjacent joint' along the belt the reverse action will take place. The theory of this warping or bending out of the proper plane of the belt isnot clearly understood, but has been variously attributed to the line of angular engagement between the connector wires or members and the right and/or left hand wound wire sections, or to the angle of engagement between the wires of the right and/ or left hand wound wire sections with each other, or possibly to the direction of the main tensile stresses upon the belt in the upper and lower planes thereof which, of course, are along lines diagonal of the belt in one direction in the right hand wound sections on one side and in another direction in the left hand wound sections on the same side. Whatever may be the proper explanation of this phenomena, the fact remains that it is extremely undesirable in lehr conveyer belts for the reason that a portion which warps or bends upwardly from the plane of the belt is an unstable supporting surface. upon which articles having small bottom portions may not be. placed without danger of toppling and which therefore render the belt less eficient in use. On the other hand, the existence of a portion of the belt which tends to warp or bend downwardly out of the normal plane of the belt causes an upward buckling of the adjacent portions of i the belt when it is traveling over a plane surface, asuit does through the lehrs of the type disclosed `in the Mulholland and Ingle patents above referred to. This causes an unstable and non-horizontal supporting surface for the ware with the disadvantage above referred to, and in addition causes excessive wear of the downwardly warped portion of the belt which contacts with the supporting of to warp or bend out of the normal plane of the belt will be reduced to a negligible 5 amount, thus providing a belt having an even supporting surface, all of which is useful to equal advantage with small bottomed ware and also to provide a belt-having a much longer life, as a result of more even wear, 0 than those of the prior art. This can be, and is, by the present .invention accomplished in practice by the use of single right and left hand wound wires connected by suitable connecting means, whereby the tendency foi` warping or otherwise bending out of the normal plane is negligible or substantially so.

Another difficulty which has arisen in the use of the prior art belts is that the waresupporting surface of the body of any one section of the prior art belts may be considered as comprisinga series of parallel lines diagonal to the course of the belt. As a result, when the prior art belts are used in conveying articles having Arelatively narrow bottoms, such, for example, as flat panel bottles, and when these articles are placed on the belt with the longer axes of their bottoms respectively substantially parallel to the lines of the ware-Supporting surface of the belt, there has been great danger of toppling of the articles, at least those'which are placed intermediate the ends of a single section of right or left-hand wound wires.

invention is the provision of a belt wherein the lines of support for the articles includev 0 wires making up the belt. It has been found in practice that a belt constructed in accordance with the present invention is effective to support panel bottles of the type just referred to with a minimum of trouble due to the toppling of the articles.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the following specification and sub-joinedclaims when talen in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of a conveyer belt constructed according to my present invention;

.Fig 2 is a side view of the conveyer belt portion of Fig. l as seen from the right hand side thereof;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. l showing a different form'of conveyer belt; and

Fig. 4 is a side View of the conveyer belt portion of Fig. 3 similar to the showing of Fig. 2.

Referring to Figs. l and 2 which illustrate a conveyer belt constructed according to my present invention, there is shown right hand 5 wound wire sections l, and left hand wound A further object, therefore, of the present` wire sections 2, each comprising single wires, which are connected by connectlng wires 3.

The connecting wires 3 are formed with small i loops 4 on one side, each engaging a turn of the left hand wound wire sections 2 and large loops 5 on the other side, each of which engages a turn of the adjacentright hand wound wire section l. The several wires 1, 2 and 3 making up the belt are connected at the lateral edges thereof, as shown at 6, by forming a vloop on the connecting wires 3 engaging a loop on the adjacent right or left hand wound wire. These connections 6 at the edges are arranged in lateral alignment with the joint between the connecting rection of the belt will be substantially zeroVVV and also that the tendency for warping out of the normal plane of the belt adjacent to the edge at a connection between a right and left hand wound wire will be reduced substantially to zero, as this tendency which -may be up to the point 7 will be offset by an equal and opposite tendency at the point 8, and so on along the belt. This neutralizing of the tendency to warp out of the normal plane of the belt will exist irrespective of which of the above suggested explanations of this tendency is the right one, or irrespective of whether any of them is correct. It has been found, for example, that a belt constructed in accordance with the present invention has the several advantages and lacks the disadvantages of prior art conveyer belts as above set forth.

In the accompanying drawing, the lines of' support for the ware on the belt are indicated by the broken dash lines, one of which is denoted 9 (Fig. l). Following down the line 9, it will be seen that there is a substantial angle or change in direction at the point 10, another change in direction or angle at the point 11, and a still further angle or change in direction at the point 12. Inasmuch as the4 portion of the belt'shown in Fig. 1 constitutes more than a single unit, of which the belt may be considered as made up, it will be seen that there isfro place in the belt where the "lines of support do not contain at least one substantial angle or change in direction for any four contiguous Wires. The maximum length of the substantially straight line of the ware-supporting surface of the belt is for a three wire section,

as indicated from the point 11 to the point 12.

Also, the belt may be considered as made up of a plurality of sections including a pair of connecting wires 3 between which is arranged a right-hand wound Wire 1. and with one of the connecting wires 3 is engaged a left-hand wound wire 2. These units or sections may be duplicated as often as necesssary to make up a belt of the desired length.

Referring now to Figs. 3 and/1, there is shown rightihand wound wires 1 and a left hand wound wire 2 connected by connecting wires 3', the form of these wires being somewhat different from vthat of the corresponding wires of Figs. 1 and 2 but their arrangement and functions being substentially the same as above described. The ends of these wires are connected at 6', as above described for the connection 6 at the edges of the belt in Fig. 1.

The form of the wires 1 and 2', shown in Figs. 3 and 4, and the advantages of the use of such a form of wire coil are not per se a part of the present invention as they form the subject matter of the copending application of Anderson, Serial No. 600,603, filed March 23, 1932.

Certain other changes or modifications might be made without departing from the spirit of this invention. I do not wish to be limited, therefore, except by the appended claims, which are to be construed as broadly as the state of the prior art permits.

What is claimed is 1. A woven wire conveyer, comprising alternately arranged transversely disposed substantially helical right and left hand wound wires, connecting wires interposed between and meshing with each turn of the rst named wires and so formed and arranged that -when the conveyer is assembled for use. it presents a supporting surface for ware made up ofportions of the turns of all of said wires and of such character that the linesof the ware-supporting surface for any four contiguous wires includes at least one substantial change in direction, whereby articles having relatively narrow bottoms mav be supported on the con.- veyer without toppling.

2. A woven wire conveyer, composed of a plurality of transversely disposed wire sections, each of which is made up of a pair of similar connecting wires having` sets of loops on each side thereof, the pitch of the loops on one side being in the opposite direction tothe pitch of the loops on the other side. a single right hand wound substantially helical wire.

the turns of which are engaged with one of the loops on the sides of each of said pair of connecting wires the pitch of which is'in one direction. and a single left hand wound substatially helical wire. each turn of which is engaged `with one of the loops on the' other side'of one of said pair of connecting wires, said connecting wires being formed co-extensive with the thickness of said conveyer when said sections are assembled, whereby all said wires have portions making upthe ware-supporting surface of the conveyer and whereby the ware-supporting surface of the conveyer has lines of contact with the ware, which lines include at least one substantial angle for each four contiguous Wires the better to support articles having relatively narrow bottomsk Signed at Hartford, Connecticut, this 30th day of April 1932.

HAROLD A. WADMAN. 

